Chapter 2
Afew hours later, Jill took the elevator down to the hall where the wedding rehearsal was to be held.
Terry had met her at the hotel lobby when she arrived.
It had been a touching reunion with lots of hugs and screams, mostly from her.
Seeing how happy he was, Jill was glad she’d swallowed her pride and accepted the stranger’s help.
She’d thought about the stranger a lot since she left him back at the airport, especially the hours they spent together on the plane and how great it felt to be in his arms and have his hand inside her.
After Terry helped her settle in her room, he informed her he had a few wedding things to take care of.
Jill offered to help, but he reassured her she didn’t have to do anything but arrive at the rehearsal dinner on time.
With nothing to do, she had put that time to good use, eating lunch by the pool before taking a very long nap so she could be alert and present at dinner.
It was a great start to her vacation, and she’d even caught the eyes of a few good-looking men down at the pool.
Jill told herself she didn’t entertain any of them because she was focused on her brother's wedding.
Her real vacation could start as soon as he was off on his honeymoon in two days.
The truth was a lot simpler than that. None of those men was him.
If she thought leaving the stranger at the airport would be the last time she thought of him, she was quickly corrected by that notion.
These men were young, some ripped and fit, their muscles glistening from the sunscreens and oils they’d rubbed on.
Yet all she wanted was the man with the salt-and-pepper hair who called her Princess and made her wet when he told her she’d been a good girl.
Everyone else looked dull in comparison, and her only hope was that she’d quickly overcome this silly crush.
She had spent a lot of money on this vacation, and the last thing she needed was to waste it pining for a man she would never see again.
Pushing every thought of the stranger out of her mind, she made her way to the hall for the rehearsal dinner.
Terry and his fiancée had chosen to have a small ceremony with only a few dozen family members and friends, so not that many people were in the hall.
She quickly found her brother surrounded by a bevy of people and waved at him. He smiled and waved her over.
Jill approached him and his fiancée. The first time she met Emma was at a dinner her brother invited her to, and it took only a few minutes to see how she was with her brother to know that the two of them were wildly in love.
She had known even then that a proposal was coming soon.
In Terry’s words, he would have proposed a lot sooner, but he needed to figure some things out.
Marriage was hard for him, given how their parents’ relationship had ended, and she was proud of him for overcoming that emotional wound and giving love a chance.
It was inevitable that she would face the same conundrum when it was her turn to get married, but she didn’t have to worry about that for a long time.
“Hey, Jill,” Emma exclaimed, grinning widely as she threw her arms around her. “I’m so glad you could make it.”
“Glad to be here too,” Jill replied. She had learned from her last encounter with Emma that she was a big hugger and had prepared accordingly.
“Terry told me you missed your second flight and had to catch another one. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright. I got some help along the way.”
“Well, I hope that was the worst of it, and the rest of your journey here went fine.”
Jill remembered the way her legs kept shaking after her orgasm on the plane and looked down as she cleared her throat. “Yes, it was fine.”
“Good.” Emma grinned at her. “Now that you’re here, I should let you know Terry was really worried you were not going to make it.”
She glanced at him. “I told you I would.”
He grinned ruefully. “I know. I just wish you’d arrive two days earlier instead of the day before the wedding. That was cutting it really close already, and then you texted to say you missed your flight. You know how anxious I get about this stuff.”
“I do. I’m sorry, Terry. You know I would have been here a lot earlier if I could have helped it.” She had taken a few extra shifts at work because she needed the money, but she would not tell him that. “But I promise nothing would have kept me from seeing you get married.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here now,” he said, smiling as he reached down and kissed her on the cheek. “Come on, I’ll take you around the room and introduce you to some of Jill’s family. They’ve all been expecting you.”
Walking with Terry and Emma, Jill met cousins and aunts, nephews and nieces of her brother’s fiancée.
It took a few moments to get used to the idea that all these people would now be part of her family, but they seemed like a nice bunch and greeted her enthusiastically.
Terry had always wanted a big family and seemed to have settled in quite nicely with them.
She watched them laugh and tease each other with a familiarity that would have unsettled her, but Terry seemed to love it, and that was all that mattered.
“Looks like you’re enjoying yourself,” she said to him as they stopped in the middle of the tour around the room. Emma had stepped away to attend to something, so it was just the two of them. “How do you know all these people so well?”
“Spent a few holidays with Emma and her family,” he replied. “Remember all those invitations I sent you? The ones you were too busy to attend,” he teased.
“Terry, you know I would have come if I could. I just...”
“I know,” he chimed in. “You were too busy with school and work.”
She felt guilty and promised to do better in the future. “Well, I’m done with school now, so I’m free for every holiday. I won’t turn down another invitation.”
“Really?”
Seeing his eyes light up made her feel guiltier. “Yes, I promise. And I'm sorry for all the ones I missed. If I had known they were that important to you—”
“It’s okay.” He stopped her. “It’s not like we don’t see each other. Plus, we talk on the phone all the time.”
That was true, but this was different. Their father had done his best to raise them alone, but he had never really been big on holidays, so she grew up not placing much importance on them.
She realized Terry took them seriously, and for him, she would do anything.
A server walked past, and she grabbed a flute of champagne from his tray before he walked away.
“Where’s Emma?” she asked, looking around.
“I think she went to look for her father. He was around earlier, and he’s dying to meet you.”
Jill narrowed her eyes. “Why? You didn’t tell him anything bad about me, did you? Terry, please tell me you’re still not going around telling people I work at NASA.” It was a game he liked to play, in which he introduced her to his friends by telling them she worked at the space agency.
“No,” he said, chuckling, “but you have to admit it is a great joke.”
“Easy for you to say. I’m the one who has to explain that I don’t work at NASA and have never been to the moon or the International Space Station. Remember that guy who won’t stop asking me questions even after I told him I don’t work at NASA.”
“Fred? He thought you were a secret space agent.”
Jill sighed. “See, that’s why I don’t like meeting your friends.”
“Bullshit, you don’t like meeting anyone,” he said and looked over her shoulder. “There’s Emma, and it looks like she found her father. He just arrived this morning as well. Hey, there’s a chance you two were on the same plane since you had to change your flights.”
“How do I look?” she asked, looking down at her dress.
“You look fine,” Terry said after sparing her a glance.
“Come on, I'm about to meet your new father-in-law. I need to make a good first impression.”
He took a second look and tucked an errant lock of hair behind her head. “Now, you look perfect. Don’t worry, Emma’s dad is chill. You’ll love him. Also, you’ll be seeing a lot more of him from now on, so big smile. Don’t forget, technically, he will be your father-in-law too.”
“That’s true,” Jill said after thinking about it for a second. “Well, here goes nothing,” she said as she turned around...
...and found herself looking into the eyes of the stranger from the plane.
The man in whose arms she’d spent hours.
The man who had made her orgasm with his hands 35,000 feet in the air.
The man who had called her Princess and whispered such dirty things in her ears that the memory was enough to make her blush.
The man she’d raced away from at the airport, thinking she would never see again.
The man who seemed just as shocked to see her as she was to see him. Her new father-in-law.
Jill squeaked.